A hidden calamity: Hattrem

[Lorisaur]

Hi everyone! This is a post about a pokemon I've discovered to be great (or at least not so bad) in VGC: Hattrem. 

You heard it right, I'm not talking about Hatterene, but about her pre evolution, the cute, adorable Hattrem!

I know there is almost no one here to play vgc, but the series 8 is close and who doesn't want to hear about a cute nfe fairy handling semi-decently a Dyamaxed Dialga or Kyogre?

So, here we are

 

First of all, what are Hattrem's positives over Hatterene?

They are just completely different pokemon who serve really different purpouses. Hattrem, for example, is faster than Hatterene, and this allows here to make use of Nuzzle, that can catch by surprise a bit everyone. Nuzzle is completely useless on Hatterene for obvious reasons, while Hattrem instead works best in teams that don't need trick room but are more around the mid-speed range. She doesn't even learn trick room, and she doesn't need it. However, again, people would expect Hattrem to have it because who knows what Hattrem does in first place

Second: Hattrem is not a fairy and is slightly bulkier than Hatterene. They have the same hp stat, and defenses are just slightly worse than the big hat. The typing difference is something no one knows about, and even if someone does (because of a bo3), you still have a solid typing that lets Hattrem fulfill her awesome goal

What is that goal you ask? Stalling a Dynamax, mainly. Hattrem has access to mystical fire and life dew, with good typing and great bulk. I discovered her back in season 4, when Duraludon and Lapras were everywhere. They couldn't directly deal enough damage to the cute child, so she could mystical fire and spam life dew from there. Her partner used to be my own Lapras to set up the aurora veil and increase Hattrem's durability even further. She is an incredibly annoying pokemon to deal with, and even the opponent knows what she does, it's not enough to be safe from her shenanigans

She is not only an early game dynamax staller, of course. Hattrem can act as a win condition aganist many pokemon. Gastrodon, Ferrothorn, Porygon2, just to name a few. Especially aganist Ferrothorn, you can try to preserve Hatty for the late game and clean with her ruining Ferrothorn amazing leech seed iron defense plans. An underrated option on her is Calm Mind, but I will explore it better in the future. Oh right because Hattrem can even go on the offensive: altough she has miserable special attack and usually no notable investments, it's steel not a pokemon you can sleep on and she can pull off her surprise max flare or max mindstorm to guarantee a ko on Venusaur, Ferrothorn and other nasty pokemon. If you are too afraid of Urshifu, you can even go max starfall. With the right ev spread, max hattrem can resist two wicked blow even though they are crits and supereffective. What a great pink mon. I've used to dynamax Hattrem quite consistently during season 5, aganist the sun cores: Indeedee and Torkoal could set up the field and weather for me, Hatterene was prone to getting crippled by mystical fire, Amoonguss was stopped by safeguard (which I used to run at the time) and Venusaur was useless aganist a huge Hattrem

Now, she has to face her biggest challenge, trying to be viable in a meta filled with legends. However, with the right spread she can resist even onslaughts by Dynamax ubers like Dialga and ruin the day of key threats like Xerneas with her aforementioned tools.

Hattrem is a multipurpouse pokemon that can be used in so many different ways, however I must remind that she is not at all a pokemon you can just slap on a team. She has many small qualities, and will only fit in a team that needs exactly those ones, and just in a metagame that is relatively friendly to her. She has very low offensive presence, doesn't have some key support tools like follow me or trick room, and no one will probably ever play her in serious games beside me. However, I was very impressed at how well she may perform in the new series 8 metagame, and since she is incredibly cute I want to support her

 

Good luck Hat family! 

(P.S. for those who alredy know me, dw Silvally is still my favourite by far)